God damn mafia schools
by nayru9572
Summary: Great, just great. One second Ellen was enjoying her last week of summer vacation and the other she enrols in a mafia high school with absurd entrance exams. God damn mafia schools and goddamn Varia!
1. Chapter 1

It was already Thursday. Over four days summer vacation would end and she would have to go to school again. All Ellen wanted was to enjoy the last days of summer vacation, but her mother just couldn't let her have that, could she? 'Ellen! Can you go buy some carrots at the grocery?' 'Okay mom!' Ellen sighed. That week was pretty awful for her. If it were just the chores her mom made her do it would be alright, but she had the worst luck that week.

When her younger sister somehow convinced her to climb in a tree to reach her toy gun (how did it even end up there?) a branch suddenly snapped. If it wasn't for Ellen's sturdy build, she would've most likely died from the fall on her head. That was Monday.

On Tuesday her mom suddenly gave her a form with different math, language and anatomy questions that her school would most likely never even think of giving her because they were of an extremely hard level. Apparently it belonged to a brochure for a school somewhere in Italy as a minimum requirement for entering the school. If she didn't get at least a 90% on it she wouldn't have had dinner for the next two days. So when her mother corrected it with an answer key on the back of the brochure her stomach was happy she got a 91% on it.

The day after, she got dragged into a fight she had nothing to do with. Since she didn't want to get beat up herself she had no choice but to beat the other guys up. Ever since the thugs of her town started running once they saw her. Ellen sighed as she wondered what would go wrong that day. She had to remember to check that tree opposite her house. She had a feeling like she was being watched from that tree ever since she almost broke her neck on Monday. Who knows, maybe there lived evil spirits in it that brought bad luck to her?

To Ellen's relief the way to the grocery was peaceful. The only weird thing was that according to the grocer, her mother had called to also prepare some sausages. Hadn't her mother bought those the day before? On the way back she noticed some dog bark at her. The dog was always kept on a leash by its owners and Ellen had seen it so many times she wasn't scared of it anymore. But today she had a weird feeling, almost like the dog was closing in to her… Ellen sprinted away at Olympic speed. In all those years she passed there, that was the first time that mutt actually managed to break free from its leash! Normally it wouldn't have run after her, but sadly she had a bunch of sausages with her. She would've thrown them away, but she was more afraid of her mom than she was of the dog. That really wasn't her week.

'Why did you bring sausages?' Her mother asked when Ellen had finally managed to outrun the dog. 'The grocer said that you called to prepare some.' 'I didn't. Must have been some mistake, go bring them back.' 'What? Why?' 'Because: the person who ordered them will be mad if they aren't there when he/she comes to get them!' Ellen let out a big groan. 'Come on now, don't be lazy! If you have such an attitude for just bringing back some sausages, imagine how bad it will be when school starts again!' Sometimes Ellen just hated her mother. But, what could she do? Even if she was a complete bitch at times, she was still her mother. A mother, that decided whether Ellen would have dinner that evening or not.

The next morning Ellen decided she would just stay in bed for the rest of the day. So what if she wouldn't get any breakfast? She would gladly starve if that meant she could rest that day. This was the exact argument her mom had when Ellen refused to leave her bed. Sadly, her tummy didn't agree. So when her mother called, just to see if her daughter had changed her mind, Ellen got up and walked down the stairs to the kitchen, not even bothering changing out of her pyjamas since she would go back to bed after breakfast.

Breakfast existed out of orange juice, scrambled eggs and slightly burned pieces of bacon. 'Because you took so long', her mom said. Ellen brought her empty plate to the kitchen and was just about to return to her room when her mother called her again. 'What is it?' 'I forgot to mention it earlier, but there arrived a letter for you this morning.' Her mom yelled from inside the kitchen. Ellen picked up a letter from a small table where her mom always put the mail.

'What is it?' Ellen turned around to see her little sister standing on her tip toes to see the letter Ellen was holding in her hand. 'No idea, Tiny.' Tiny was Ellen's nickname for her little sister, whose name was actually Tilany. For her convenience Ellen always forgot to say the 'la' part. Her sister frowned a little, only to cheer up again when she realized her sister was playing with her name. Tilany was always a bit sensitive about her height, because she was surrounded by a mother and a sister who were both much taller than most people. Even though Ellen had explained countless times that Tilany's height was perfectly normal for someone her age, she refused to accept it.

'Are you leaving to your room already?' 'Yeah, I want to get a little more sleep.' 'Can you at least open the letter first?' Ellen looked at her little sister and let out an amused sigh. How could she say no to those puppy eyes? 'Alright then, fine.' 'Thanks sis!'

Ellen sat down at the table again, while Tiny started eating her breakfast. 'Mom, can you hand me the letter opener?' 'Okay sweetie!' Her mother opened a drawer, took out a letter opener with a cat-shaped end and threw it at Ellen, who caught it with little effort between her fingers. She opened the letter and took out an official looking document with two papers attached to it. 'What is it?' 'It's… An answer to an application for a school in Italy…' 'Oh, so they answered!' 'You knew about this?' 'Why, of course! You do remember that form I let you fill in the other day, right?' 'I didn't expect you to actually send it back.' 'What did you think I gave you that form for?' Ellen couldn't say that she had thought her mom had given it to her purely to irritate her. After a moment of silence her mom spoke again. 'What is their answer?' 'Wait, I'll read it out loud.'

"Dear Miss Hander,

We are proud to inform you that your daughter, Miss Ellen Hander, has passed the entrance exam for our school. We will send someone to escort your daughter to her new school soon after you receive this letter. There she will be staying until the holidays. Attached to this letter are two documents: One informing about the school rules and anything your daughter should surely bring along, and another one explaining what exactly your daughter will do on our school. We advice you to prepare the necessary luggage your daughter will need. We sincerely hope your daughter will enjoy her time at our school.

Sincerely: The Naples High School board of direction."

'What? Sis is leaving for Italy? Not while I'm around!' 'Calm down honey. This is a great opportunity for your sister. The Naples High School is very private, not everybody can enter it! Besides, you haven't even heard your sister's thought on it yet. She might very well decline.' Tiny and Miss Hander looked at Ellen, one person hoping she declines the other hoping she accepts. 'Hmmm, Naples is a town in Italy close to the coast. The view and food around there should be good, and anything is better than my current school.' She said after a long moment of silence. 'Yes!' 'No! I don't want you to leave, big sis!' 'Come on Tiny, I won't be gone forever. Besides, this gives you an excuse to come to Italy during the holidays.' 'I still don't want you to leave!' Ellen chuckled. She was going to miss her little sister for sure.

'They even pay tuition fees!' Ellen looked up from her sister and saw that her mom was reading one of the papers that were attached to the letter, with the emphasis on 'were'. She had removed the paperclip that had kept the papers together. She was reading the paper with information on the school and shoved the other one to Ellen. She carefully read the letter, making sure she wouldn't end up going to school while missing something important.

The next day Ellen woke up early. On one of the documents there was written Ellen would be picked up in the evening. Ellen ate a lot of breakfast so she wouldn't end up getting hungry just before she got picked up. She was going to die of embarrassment if her tummy would growl during the trip to Italy. She had made the larger part of her luggage the day before so she was in no hurry anyway.

After breakfast she put some stuff in her backpack for in the airplane. She looked on the clock. 16:34 it wasn't that late yet. She suddenly felt a bit nervous. At 18:00 she readied her luggage. According to the documents, she was going to leave soon. Ellen had asked her mom to let her see the other paper, but she had just said it was only interesting for the parents.

Tiny was trying to change her mind last minute when they heard the sound of a car stopping in front of their house. 'That must be them.' Her mom gave Ellen a small kiss on the cheek. 'Good luck darling.' Ellen hugged her little sister one last time before picking up her luggage and walking to the front door. 'Bye!' She said before closing the door behind her.

She was greeted by a warm evening breeze. In front of her house there stood a black car. The door flew open and a man with long, silver hair stepped out. He motioned for her to step inside the car. Ellen picked up her luggage and stepped inside. It looked like a pretty expensive car. She sat on a leather couch with opposite of her the silver haired man and next to him a boy with blond hair covering his eyes and a Cheshire grin. She looked at her house one last time before the car came into motion.


	2. Chapter 2

Ellen felt… misplaced. She felt like she didn't belong there and she was most likely right. She had never been on the first-class part of a plane, and surely not with two strangers. The man with the silver hair named Squalo had explained that Ellen's admittance was a bit different from the other students. Ellen would have to know seven languages at the end of the school year instead of just three, and she had to have at least 90% on all her classes to pass school. Other than that there were no big changes. She decided it would be better not to ask why she got special treatment. Once their plane landed, Ellen, Squalo and the blond haired boy named Bel got on a car. They drove past the coast and Ellen looked at the sea, thinking about Tiny and how she would've loved to see it.

Soon the sight of the coast changed into trees passing by fast. In the distance Ellen could see a huge castle-like building. There she noticed there were actually three buildings. The three buildings were placed in a way that it would look like a square without bottom if looked at from above. Each building was huge, and looked like an exact copy of the other two from the outside. Ellen got out of the car about a kilometre before reaching the buildings. Bel said they would 'see each other later' before closing the door. She looked at the car driving away until it was out of sight, and then turned around to walk the last part of the way.

'Shishishi, I wonder if she can hold it out until graduation? She passed our tests, but they were much easier than those from that school.' Bel said once Ellen was out of sight. 'Voooooooi! Are you worried about her or something?' 'Of course not, cause I'm a prince.'

'Room number 313' Ellen mumbled as she stood in front of a wooden door with the numbers 313 placed on it in metal numbers. One of the staff had explained that the student living faculties such as the rooms and dining hall were in the building on the left.

She put her key in and turned it. Ellen dragged her luggage to the bed on the right that was empty and opened it. She opened the curtains which gave her a good sight of the court between the three buildings. The court had a big round centre with a fountain in the middle. There were four gardens surrounding the fountain, leaving only a path of roughly five metres for the students to walk.

A part of the path went into the woods surrounding the school, and most likely stopped at the cliff she had seen when she just arrived. Ellen took some stuff out of her luggage and placed them on her own desk next to her bed. She then closed her luggage and shoved it in the space meant for it under her bed. She got up and went down the stairs in the hall to the court.

It was still Saturday so Ellen had two days left to get used to the school. She had brought a book on Italian. The book had no way to identify if you pronounced it correctly, but that wouldn't be necessary since half of the school spoke Italian apparently. If she had trouble pronouncing something she just needed to listen to the other students talking.

She just realized she was busy learning Italian. That meant that if she learned Italian she would be closer to fulfilling the seven languages condition. How many languages did she know actually? She already knew Spanish, French, English, Dutch and a little bit of Italian. That meant she still had to learn two other languages.

She would have to think about those two later. Maybe she could learn Japanese? Some of her family members were Japanese. Then the next time the family held a gathering she could finally understand what those guys were saying to each other. She suspected her aunt of calling her abnormally tall. There was nothing wrong with her length! She was just a bit taller than most seventeen year old girls, nothing really abnormal. Or at least, that was what she thought herself. Ellen closed the book and stood up from the bench she had been sitting on for the past few hours. She had added a few more Italian words to her vocabulary: she now knew basic Italian. She decided to take a walk through the woods. She wondered how her roommate would be.

The dorms were divided in the female section that got the utmost left part, and the male section that got the right part of the building. There slept two students in every room and all teachers got a private room. Every room had one bathroom with bath, shower, toilet and sink. The lowest floors were used for the cafeterias. Yes, plural. For some reason the boys and girls didn't eat in the same room. The upper parts of the dorms were rooms, and on the highest floor was a recreation facility for both boys and girls. The students were allowed to stay there until 11:00 p.m.

Ellen looked at her watch. '19:28, time to go eat.' The cafeteria was filled with students. Ellen had to do her best not to lose her place in the row waiting for food, since there was a lot of pushing and pulling from girls who arrived late. When Ellen was finally first, a girl bumped into her and took her place. 'Hey, it's my turn!' 'Come on, it's just one place, it's not like that's going to make much of a difference.' Since Ellen couldn't think of anything to say back to her she just took her place after the girl. 'Sorry gals; that was the last one. You'll just have to do with the leftovers.' The lunch lady said as the other girl left. The girls behind Ellen left out deep sighs. Why, was there something wrong with leftovers? Soon Ellen knew the answer.

What exactly were those leftovers from? They tasted awful! Even food made by her self tasted better and those were always burnt to charcoal! She threw a glare at the girl that had cut in front of her. She answered with a most irritating smile. Even more irritating was that she looked beautiful with that orange, long hair and green eyes. Ellen let herself fall on her bed. She found it weird that her roommate wasn't there yet, but she was too tired to be bothered with it. She changed into her pyjamas, brushed her teeth and went to bed early.

Ellen woke up from the sound of a door closing. She sat up and looked at the bed of her roommate. The blanket was lying on the foot end, which proved that it was most likely her roommate that just left the room. She looked at the clock that was already standing on her bedside table. 'Who the fuck goes out at 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday?' Ellen tried to get some more sleep but she was already wide awake. Instead of lazily lying in bed she decided to go out. Exploring the school seemed like an interesting activity. Sadly enough the school building was still closed, so instead of the building Ellen explored the school grounds.

The school grounds existed out of a forest with numerous paths and a cliff with sight on the sea. Ellen imagined that those places were going to be filled with couples once the school started. For a second, she thought that maybe she too would come there with someone… She shook her head as to drive the thought away. There was no way she would be brave enough to ask someone there.

She spent the rest of the day reading in her Italian book or exploring the school grounds. She had already unpacked anything she needed the next day, and the lessons she would take would be chosen on Monday. She went to bed early after dinner but she couldn't fall asleep. She heard the door of her room open and she looked at the clock. 23:49 p.m. 'Nice to meet you.' Ellen said as she sat up in bed. 'Aaaah!' The light switched on and Ellen looked at the surprised face of most likely the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.

The girl in front of her had long, golden, curled locks of hair and deep blue eyes. She had a beautiful figure and looked beautiful in her dark blue skirt and white top. 'Ah, sorry for screaming.' She said as she noticed the one who had spoken was her new roommate. 'Don't worry about it; I can understand you were surprised. My name's Ellen, what's yours?' 'Tiffany, nice to meet you Ellen.' 'You were back pretty late, and you left early in the morning.' 'Yeah, I had some… problems with someone. Sorry if I woke you up.' 'You didn't. I couldn't sleep. Care to tell me what your problem is?'

Tiffany looked unwilling to at first, but she sighed and said: 'Okay then, I guess you deserve to know, since you're my roommate. There's this boy that likes me…' 'Can you blame him with your looks?' Ellen thought. 'It wouldn't be a problem if it was just that but… Recently he started… following me.' Tiffany said as she sat on her bed. 'A stalker you mean.' '… Yes. I've tried to tell him I'm not interested, but he won't accept it.' Tiffany sighed. 'I've been avoiding him, but he also goes to this school. I don't want him to find out what my room is, so I try to stay away from my room as long as I can.'

'…' 'Sorry, if this might trouble you.' 'What are you apologizing for? He likes you, you can't change that, and it'd be a waste to change your looks just so he'll stop stalking you. Can't you complain about him to the staff?' 'No! He's a nice guy; I don't want to get him into trouble…' 'You do know it's illegal to stalk someone?' 'Yes.' 'Well, imagine he continues to stalk you. Eventually he would start to stalk other people who are less nice than you. If that happens, won't they just report him to the police? I personally find going to jail worse than getting in trouble at school.' 'But…' 'No buts. Eventually he'll only get himself into more trouble, so it'd be best for both of you if you just go and report him to the staff.' '… You're right…' 'Okay. Now promise me you'll go to the staff first thing in the morning and report him, okay?' 'Fine, I promise.' 'Good. Now let's both try to sleep before we get too tired to wake up on our first day of school.'

'How did it go?' Ellen asked as soon as Tiffany came out of the director's office the next day. 'She said she'll look into it, and if he is indeed stalking me he'll get punishment, but not too strict.' 'That's great!' 'Yeah, thanks again for talking me into doing this.' 'Hey, as roommates we have to support each other, right?' 'Yeah!' 'Will all students gather in the auditorium for the entrance ceremony?' A speaker said. 'Uh oh, you don't want to be late. Let's hurry.' Ellen wanted to ask why not, but since Tiffany had been going to the school before, she decided to trust her on this one.

Tiffany was right. After a few minutes the auditorium was packed, and all the late students had to sit completely in the back. 'Glad we were here early.' 'Told you so.' 'Ssst!' someone said as the director walked on the podium. The director was an old lady with grey, curled, short hair. Even thought Ellen saw her for the first time, she knew she could trust her. She just gave of a warm feeling. 'Welcome, dear students to Naples high school! We sincerely hope that you…'

Ellen stopped listening half way. This was the exact same opening speech her old school had. She honestly doubted she was going to hear something interesting. Instead she looked around a bit. The auditorium was a large room, which could no doubt fit more than 300 students. According to the letter she had gotten after the opening ceremony students would be able to choose some of their classes. Of course there were classes you had whether you wanted or not, but you could choose half of the total amount of classes. Unless you excelled at some of your classes, you had to have at least 35 hours of lessons, of which 17 already chosen for you.

'… And that's it. We hope you enjoy your school days here and a good day!' The speech or ended surprisingly fast, or Ellen had been thinking deeper than she thought. Since her leg was sleeping she guessed the latter. Once outside somebody bumped into her. It was the girl that stole her place in the food row Saturday! 'Hey, look where you're walking!' Since Ellen didn't want to get in trouble she just went along. 'You're right, sorry.' 'Humph, at least someone who knows her place, unlike someone else I know…' The girl with orange hair smiled poisonously at Tiffany before turning around. 'Everything alright, Tiff?' Tiffany looked like she was about to cry. 'Y… Yeah, I'm fine…' She said as she wiped away some tears that rolled down her cheek. Ellen grabbed her by her hand and dragged her to the toilets.

'Damn that girl! First she makes me eat those leftovers, and then she makes you cry!' 'That's just how she is.' Tiffany said as she dried her face with a towel. 'You alright?' 'Yeah, I'm fine, thanks.' Tiffany smiled at Ellen. 'What was that girl's problem anyway?' 'She… Let's just say she and I have a bit of a history together.' 'Don't want to share it?' 'No. It's a bit painful…' 'I won't force you.' 'Thanks again.' 'No prob.' 'Where are you from by the way? I'm not familiar with your accent.' 'Spain. And you?' 'Germany.' 'Hmm, maybe I'll take German as one of my languages of choice.' 'Ah, because of the rule you need to know at least three languages at the end of the year, right?' 'Uh, I guess.' Ellen didn't feel like saying that she had to know at least seven languages; it would only make things complicated. 'What family are you from, by the way?' 'What?' 'What mafia family are you from? I'm from the Cavallone family, but my Dad's German and he wanted to stay in his own country when he married my mom.' 'Uh…' Oh shit.


	3. Chapter 3

Of all the schools she could get into, it had to be a mafia school. How? How was something like that even possible? Did the universe have something against her? With everything that had happened, that sounded more credible than just coincidence. Ellen sighed. She had managed to chance the topic of their conversation by saying that she was just from a small unknown family. When she asked, Tiffany had said the school was officially a normal school, but a lot of the kids were connected to the mafia. From the way Tiffany talked about it, the Cavallone family must've been an important family.

Once she knew it was a mafia school, Ellen noticed that it was actually quite obvious. It stood in the school rules that students were not allowed to carry weapons unless they were provided by the school. A lot of students were wearing expensive brand clothes that normal high school students shouldn't be able to afford. And most of all: the topic of their conversations. How didn't she notice that before? Heck, all the students talked about were their mafia families! All of them tried to convince everyone their family was much more important and so on.

Weeks had gone by since that day, and Ellen had gotten used to life on the campus. No one seemed to suspect that she had no connection with the mafia. The reason she kept it a secret was because the few students who were not mafia related (yet) were being picked on by the others. Even the ones from (according to Ellen's guessing) weak or small families were having it better than the ones without.

The lessons were the same as those from her old school most of the time. Ellen had chosen Italian and German as the languages she would study. She also had math, geography, biology, economics, history and physics. The other lessons were all mafia related. They existed out of weapon use, moving around in a battle field, tactics, extreme physical education, mafia history, bribing and threatening, etc. At least she wasn't going to live a boring school life for sure…

She quickly became good friends with Tiffany, and just as quick she built up quite the rivalry between her and Carla, the girl with orange hair. She did everything to make Ellen miserable, from cutting in front of her at dinner to sabotaging her during physical education. Physical education was the only class all the girls from a single year had together. Else they were divided into classes randomly. Tiffany, Ellen and Carla were all in their next-to-last year of school, but they were in different classes.

But of all the things that had happened, the thing that surprised her the most was the identity of the ones who escorted her to the school. When she was looking through the year book from a few years ago (because of a prank of Carla during physical ed. Ellen had detention in the library during lunch break and she found the book there) she saw the silver haired guy who had escorted her to school! When she did some research on it later it turned out he actually belonged to the Vongola independent assassination group called Varia. She also discovered the blond haired boy was also a member and that both of them were officers. Why was she escorted to school by those guys?

While she was pondering over it, the library lady walked towards her. 'I presume you are Miss Ellen Hander?' 'Y… Yes?' Ellen looked up. 'My name is Fiona Hawke, but you will address me as Miss Hawk.' Ellen nodded obediently. Miss Hawke had the same threatening aura as the home room teacher from her last school, and out of personal experience she knew you shouldn't disobey people like that. Miss Hawke continued; ignoring Ellen's scared expression. 'I do not intend you to just sit here until time is up, understood? So instead you will make yourself useful. You will put all the misplaced books in the library where they belong, and no slacking of! Have I made myself clear?' 'Yes Miss!'

Ellen cried mentally. Just when she thought she was finally freed from her home room teacher, she ended up meeting someone just like her. But even so, it also made her feel more at home. She had actually missed her old life and family, but Miss Hawke made her feel they might not be so far of as they seemed, even though there was a whole sea between them.

'Miss Hawke?' 'What?' 'I'm done.' 'Very well, since another job would be too cruel, you can just take a book and read a bit, but make sure to put it back in the right spot.' Miss Hawke added, throwing in a threatening glare. Ellen smiled. Just like her last home room teacher, Miss Hawke was strict, but not unfair.

'Miss Hawke, can you answer a question for me please?' 'What is it?' 'I was wondering; has it ever happened that students got different goals to pass school than others?' 'Yes, occasionally. Why do you ask?' 'I heard a student talking about it earlier this day and I got curious.' Ellen lied. 'When does something like this happen?' 'Sometimes it's because they didn't pass the entrance test and they got a second change by getting good points on their bad subjects.'

'Is that all?' Ellen knew that wasn't it. She got 91% on that form and she had a stomach to prove it. 'Well, sometimes students get picked to work for mafia families who pay their study costs. It works a bit like a scholarship.' Before Miss Hawke could explain anything else, the bell rung signalling the lessons were going to start. 'Oh, time's up. Now hurry to your next class.'

Ellen sighed once she exited the library. She knew everything she needed to know. She only had one question left: why the hell did an independent assassination squad from an important mafia family want to recruit her? It was going to be one hell of a school year, that much was sure.


	4. Chapter 4

'What?' The whole class brought out as one. 'Just like I said; today you'll be running around school chased by animals.' Ellen looked at her gym teacher. Was he joking? No, his face was too happy for that. He had a smile from ear to ear; it was a smile of malicious delight. 'You're kidding, right?' One of the students asked. The gym teacher's face immediately turned into a frown. 'What about this is funny? Gym is very important! I'm just giving you life experience for later! If you want to complain I'll…!' The teacher realised he was in front of his students just before finishing his sentence. 'Ehem, anyways: I'm not joking. Consider this a little test to see how your condition is.' 'But…' The student shut his mouth when the teacher gave him a death glare. 'Any more complaints about my teaching program? No? Very well; let's begin the exercise!'

Ellen just stood there; frozen while all of her classmates started running. She looked at the horde of bears running towards her. I mean; bears? Who even allowed bears on the school grounds? When they were only ten meters away from her she realized what would happen if they got to her.

Everyone from class C5 thought the girl had been eaten. One of the students panicked at hearing rapid footsteps coming closer at a fast speed, afraid that the bears were catching up. To his, and many others' surprise, they saw Ellen sprinting past them with ease. Soon she made a round around the school and she jumped into a save area the teacher had prepared for himself and any students that managed to get away from the bears. He looked at the girl who was catching her breath, just as surprised as all of his students.

But he wasn't the only one who was looking at her. From behind one of the windows on the highest floor of the right school building a man was sitting, looking at the scene in front of him with the most interest he had ever since he had arrived at the school, and that wasn't much. This man was the boss of Varia, Xanxus. He wondered who the girl was for a second, before turning his eyes away from the window. He probably wasn't going to see her again anyway, so why wonder?

Instead he looked around the room he was staying in once again. The room looked almost exactly like his room back in the Varia mansion, with the same kind of décor and furniture. A knock could be heard at the door, followed by a loud: 'Voi, I'm coming in boss!' That could only belong to his second in command, Squalo. 'What do you want, trash?' 'The principal would like to know if you knew what our purpose for coming here was.' 'Of course I know that, now get out!' Squalo closed the door before his boss could throw anything at him.

'Tch, damn that principal.' Of course Xanxus knew what he was supposed to do; did she think he was stupid? If it was anyone other than her he would've made a comment about it, but he wasn't going to complain to loud when in the same building, no, city as that woman! Sometimes he swore she had a hidden microphone attached to him, so much that woman heard! He still remembered how Bel had made a comment about the quality of his room. Out of nowhere the principal appeared. Even Xanxus hadn't noticed her presence until she started talking.

He really wondered why he had to go through all that trouble just to protect one school. So what if they had been the target of non-allied families? Were their guards so incompetent they couldn't protect the students on their own? Even so; why did he have to protect them too? They acted like a whole army would be set out just to catch some children from important families.

And then there was still the matter of the soon-to-be Varia officer that was studying there. Was the kid so incompetent that she couldn't fend of an enemy by herself? He knew why the kid had been picked out, but he still didn't think of her as much. He didn't even know what she looked like or what her first name was: his officers had picked her out after running some test. How was getting her chased by a dog or letting her fall out of a tree upside down going to determine whether she was as good as they had hoped?

He banned the girl from his thoughts and took a sip from his glass of wine. At least the wine was decent. If it wasn't he would have destroyed the place. He looked out of the window at the unknown girl again out of boredom, not realizing that was his soon-to-be officer.


	5. Chapter 5

'Weapon practice? What's that?' Ellen asked out loud, disturbing the peaceful silence that had hung in the room. 'Hm? Let me see that.' Tiffany said, standing up from her bed and crouching down next to Ellen's. After looking at the new training schedule Ellen had received that day, she handed it back with a big smile. 'Lucky you!' 'Why? What is it?' 'Weapon practice is exactly what it sounds like. You and all the other students of your year will all be allowed to choose the weapons you will specialize in for the rest of the school years.' 'Wait, we're allowed to carry weapons?' 'Yup, but if you cause too big a ruckus they'll take it away from you for a short period of time.' 'So you mean we can carry them around outside the lessons?' 'Of course. After all, some of the surprise exams throughout the years need those.'

'Surprise exams?' 'Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that! Just forget I ever mentioned it, okay?' Ellen didn't like the sound of that, but she didn't probe any further. She looked at her paper with a worried look. She didn't like the thought of being in a class about weapons together with Carla. She could already imagine an arrow fly towards her in an 'accident'. If she had believed in any god, she would've prayed. 'Don't worry; it's under strict surveillance so Carla won't have the chance to do anything funny.' Tiffany said in attempt to comfort her. 'I just hope you're right.'

'Okay everyone today is your first lesson weapon practice and I just want to make a few things clear.' Ellen's instructor said who happened to be a baby. No seriously, her instructor was a female baby by the name of Lal Mirch. 'This lesson is not for you to fool around. I have no doubt that if this lesson were to be real combat, you'd all be dead as soon as it started.' Some students let out a displeased groan, but Lal's death glare managed to silence them.

'Even so, I won't go easy on any of you, no exceptions. This training is here to make you all fighters, not wimpy babies who think they are.' 'You don't need to talk!' A student yelled. 'You there, were you the one who said that?' 'And what if I am?' 'Come here for a second.' The student stepped forward, acting all high and mighty. 'What an idiot.' Ellen thought. She wasn't sure how, but she knew Lal wasn't to be underestimated.

'So you think you're better than me? Prove it: if you can lay even a single hit on me I'll believe you're not a total bragger.' 'I don't hit babies.' At this statement Lal looked at him with an annoyed look. The next second the boy was lying a few meters further on the ground. The only thing he saw was some movement at the babies' leg. Lal looked at her students. The only use braggers like the boy from before had was to be an example. All of her students' mouths were wide open in shock, all but one.

Lal's gaze was fixed on Ellen for a few seconds, before she turned it away. 'Very well, all of you take a weapon to your liking from the pile behind me. And be careful with what you pick, it'll be yours for the rest of your time at this school.' While her students were all pushing and pulling to reach the pile first, Lal took the chance to over think what she had just seen. The girl she had been looking at hadn't looked surprised at all. No, she even looked like she had expected it to happen. Had she heard of the arcobaleno before? But no student should have heard about them yet. This was going to need some investigation later.

Ellen sighed. She had been last to pick her weapon, and the only decent one left had been a dagger. Not only that, but she had the feeling her instructor had been staring at her, though every time she looked she was observing other students. Was she getting paranoia? 'Great, just great.' She sighed. She just hoped her day didn't get worse. But it did.

After having to duck a million times because Carla, who had taken a whip, 'missed' her target every time and instead her attacks always 'accidentally' ended up in Ellen's direction. She swore, one day she would wipe of that smug smile from her pretty little face. And during dinner she had to eat leftovers, again.

'Aaargh!' She yelled once she reached the safety and comfort of her room. 'What's wrong?' 'Carla. Today during weapon practice she tried to kill me a million times over, I swear!' 'Wow, this must've been a bad day for you.' 'It is.' 'You know what always cheers me up when I'm stressed? Shopping in the town nearby!' 'But we're not allowed to leave the school during weekdays.' 'Listen Ellen, I'm not the only student here who's done that, and as long as you don't get caught, no one has a problem with it!' 'You know, you wouldn't expect someone who looks so much like a doll like you would be so mischievous.' 'And you wouldn't expect someone with your looks would be such a goody two-shoes.' 'Touché.' Ellen said with a smile.

'But seriously, you look like a model!' 'Don't flatter me like that; I know full well I'm not exceptionally pretty.' 'Trying to be humble? You've got beautiful, long black hair…' '… That's always in a ponytail.' 'You have a perfect figure and beautiful curves.' 'I look like I have weights on my chest.' 'And you don't look as thin as a tooth pick!' 'No, instead I'm like a muscled gorilla.' 'Why are you degrading yourself like that?' 'If I really was as pretty as you say I am I would have had at least one boyfriend.' 'Wait, you've never had a boyfriend? How in the world is that possible? Okay that's it; I'm going to make sure you have one by the end of the year!' 'What? No! I'd die of embarrassment before that!' 'You're not getting out of this one! It'd be a shame if a girl with your looks stays single!' 'Nooooooo!'

And so, Tiffany ended up making Ellen's day only worse.

**Sorry that I haven't posted anything for such a long time. I've been busy with school and other fanfictions I haven't even posted yet. I'll try to post my next chapters sooner!**


	6. Chapter 6

Ellen was a lying in bed unable to sleep because she was so nervous. During breakfast the teachers had announced the first exam was going to be held that night. Yes, you read it correctly, night. The exam was that the students had to escape out of their dorms together with their roommate undetected. It was a simulation exam, so the teachers said they had to make their exam look as real as possible. When the exam starts, a siren would resound through the whole school for a few seconds. All students that hadn't escaped their rooms against the morning or who had been caught would receive a zero. At first Ellen had been wondering what kind of school held exams just before the first vacation, but then she tried to catch some sleep. It didn't go well.

She had thought about trying to sleep, but she was afraid she'd sleep through the signal. She forgot that Tiffany was also there and she would probably wake her up if that happened. At last the siren resounded throughout the dorm, releasing Ellen from her suffering. She threw her blankets of and grabbed her luggage that had been lying under her bed. Out of it she took basic equipment: black shorts, a black turtle neck and black boots. Of course she didn't forget the belt with her knife attached to it.

'You're not dressed yet?' Tiffany asked. She had put her clothes on before she went to bed. 'It's a simulation exam, right? So shouldn't we try to make it seem as real as possible?' 'Fair enough, but hurry.' 'I'm dressed. So; how are we going to escape? Through the corridor and the window would seem too obvious; they've placed guards there for sure.' 'Lucky for you; this has been my room all my school years.'

After saying this, Tiffany crouched down on the floor, examining it thoroughly. About half a minute later she pulled up a hatch, revealing a hole underneath it. 'What…?' 'This hatch gives access to a tunnel between the isolation of the school. It ends in one of the air shafts in the school building. My senior in my first year showed it to me when she snuck out.' 'Snuck out?' 'She had an after curfew party in town.' 'Oh.'

'I think I'm going to sneeze.' 'Hold it in. If you fail this exam you'll be in trouble later on in the year.' After half an hour navigating through the air shafts Ellen and Tiffany finally reached the school building. 'Now where do we go?' 'We have multiple options. We can leave through a window, the back door of the front door.' 'Don't we have any other options?' 'Don't worry: this is the first exam of the year. They won't make it too difficult. Probably the doors will just be guarded by a few newcomers.' 'newcomers?' 'Keeping us from sneaking out is the exam the first years get every time.'

Ellen found they did a good job if she said so herself. They sneaked past all guards without being detected and they were almost at the front entrance. 'Wait here; I'll go look around for any guards.' Tiffany said before sneaking of. It had been 17 minutes since then. 'Damnit Tiffany, where are you?' Ellen mumbled. She immediately stopped when she heard something. It was only for a moment, and many people would have thought it was their imagination, but Ellen didn't. Years of carefully listening whether your younger sister was ambushing you or not had made sure she wouldn't make such a mistake.

She pressed her back against the wall. The sound had come from around the corner. She peeked from her hiding place. The origin of the sound was a man standing in the middle of the corridor. From the way he stood there you could tell he didn't even bother to be silent. He turned his head towards the place Ellen was hiding, and the latter barely managed to hide behind the corner again. In her head she cursed herself. She was sure he had seen her. She tensed up, but to her surprise she heard the man's footsteps walk away from her. When she couldn't hear them anymore her legs gave in.

As she was sitting on the ground, she relived the memory of seeing the man. He had a tanned skin and black hair. Ellen hadn't seen his eyes, but she had seen the many scars spread across his face. He had also worn a leather jacket on his shoulders, and what seemed to be feathers attached to his black hair.

Since he just walked away despite having seen her Ellen could make out he wasn't a student, or at least not participating in the exam. 'You alright?' Ellen almost screamed in surprise. 'Don't sneak up on me like that!' 'But we're supposed to be silent.' Tiffany said. 'Did something happen?' 'Eh, just a guard that walked past; nothing else.' Ellen didn't know why she lied. 'He didn't see you, did he?' 'If he had, I doubt I'd still be here.' 'Good point. Anyways, the main entrance is the least guarded. We should be able to escape through there.' 'But there are still guards?' 'We'll just have to distract them. C'mon, let's go.'

The main entrance of the school was indeed low on security. There were only two guards, and since they were first years, distracting them shouldn't be much of a problem. The two were talking so loudly the whole school must've heard them. Ellen observed the two carefully. For some reason her senses seemed to be at their best. She could even hear their breathing. For a moment she thought about how easy it would be to knock those two out. She was already thinking about where she would best strike when she felt Tiffany touch her shoulder. 'I got a small rock, let's throw it.' 'Isn't that a bit unoriginal?' 'Doesn't matter what you do, as long as it works.' After saying this Tiffany threw the small rock to the other end of the corridor. As she expected the two boys left their post at the door to look what the origin of the sound was. They were still too inexperienced to realize it could very well be a distraction. Tiffany and Ellen quickly and silently slipped through the door.

Outside blew a cool wind, and Ellen was glad she wore something warm. On the court there was a white tent set up where all the escaped students could stay. They even handed out coffee and warm chocolate milk. 'This was actually pretty nice. These exams are more fun than those from my old school in any case.' 'True, but we still get test on theory. And some exams tend to be a bit… extreme.' 'More extreme than getting chased around school by bears?' 'Much more extreme.' 'Great, now I'm afraid to find out what the other exams will be like.' 'Don't worry; I'll make sure to help you throughout this year!' 'Please take good care of me from now on!'

When the sun finally rose the few students that were still inside the building were brought out, and were put in the same area the students that had been caught were staying. Lal and apparently the homeroom teacher from the last years were standing in front of the students. 'And what about the first years?' 'They're getting their evaluation inside the school.'

'If everybody will pay attention please!' Lal yelled. Now the other teacher took the word. 'Thank you. I am glad so many students did their best for this year's first exam, and we hope you will keep giving so much effort in the following exams. The individual results will be announced in the evening, but until then the students have free activity. But I still want to make some things clear.

Most students passed with decent to good grades, and some even have a perfect score. But almost all of you have made a big mistake. This exam was a simulation. Unless you all sleep in the clothes you're wearing now, you were not supposed to be wearing camouflage before going to bed. There have been only three people who have followed the simulation part, and one of them is still wearing his pajamas.' Everyone looked at the boy standing in boxer shorts and a T-shirt. 'The other two will get a bonus point. Bravo, Miss Carla Vongola and Miss Ellen Hander. That was all, so you can all go back to your rooms.'

Ellen's eyes met with Carla's, who was pouting because she wasn't the only one who got a bonus point. She looked even angrier when Ellen gave her a big smile. 'Hah, that'll teach you that you're not the only one who can get good points!' Ellen thought to herself. 'Hander, can I speak you for a second?' Ellen turned around to see Lal standing behind her. 'Of course miss Lal!' 'I'll see you in the room.' Tiffany said, leaving Ellen and Lal alone.

'Is something wrong?' Ellen asked a bit worried. Maybe it had something to do with how weird she acted during the exams? Until Tiffany had spoken to her, Ellen hadn't even realized she had been planning to knock two boys out earlier. It was almost as if she had done it out of instinct. 'No, nothing wrong. I just wanted to ask you how you're keeping up with school life. I know that until the start of the school year you had been living a pretty normal life, so I was wondering how you were hanging on.' 'Ah, I'm doing fine Miss. I had a little trouble adjusting to life here at first, but I'm doing just fine now.' 'Okay, that was all I needed to know. You can go to your room now.' 'Thank you Miss and bye now.'

Lal watched as Ellen jogged to the dorms. She hadn't reacted weird in any way when Lal mentioned her life before the school, so she didn't seem to be hiding something. But she still had been chosen for the Varia, so why? Except for some strange bursts in her abilities now and then she wasn't all that special. 'I guess the only option left is to ask the principal.' Lal mumbled, not exactly excited at the idea of visiting her.


End file.
